LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5 - 7, as the title suggests, is more a continuation of an already-started adventure than a genuine sequel. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 reinvigorated the LEGO adventure games and is still regarded among the best titles in the series, but the second part offers a paucity of new ideas, or features. In this case, however, that is definitely not a bad thing.

Traveler's Tales has ensured that the same winning mix of bubbly gameplay, simple puzzle solving and goofball characters is present and correct in a slick, colourful and fun adventure. Humorous cut scenes again tell the Harry Potter story in the unique LEGO way, while the abundance of secret items to uncover will keep young minds gripped for hours, both playing alone or with a friend.

LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 retains the same structure that was first introduced with the first LEGO Star Wars game in 2005. The game covers the final four films in the Harry Potter series: The Order of the Phoenix, The Half Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows Part 1, and Part 2. Each film has been split into six stages recreating their key events and battles. Players must do platforming, light combat and lots of environment-based puzzle solving, most of which involves the use of magic spells.

The puzzles generally focus on exploring the environment and connecting the dots. For example, you may need to collect a series of items to make a potion in a cauldron, giving Harry and his compatriots the super strength to open a heavy treasure chest. Specific spells are also frequently required, such as green ones to clear rogue vines or red ones to break down giant red walls.

There are many sections where you have to smash apart an item, and then rebuild the pieces into the thing you need. It's all pretty straightforward, but the balance of challenge, reward and progression is once more judged just right. In between the story moments, players can roam around Hogwarts to collect items, do light side missions and just generally soak up the atmosphere, ghosts and all.

The game retains the light and humorous tone of previous LEGO games, despite the latter Harry Potter stories getting pretty dark in places as the young wizard reaches adolescence and faces his demons. For anyone who has not seen the Harry Potter films or read the books, the meandering plot could be a bit of a mystery. Curious expressions of shock, intrigue and other emotions by the LEGO characters (which strangely reminds one of the Tellytubbies) often only barely transmits what is going on, meaning some moments of significance could be lost. Although, it's rather doubtful that many of the target audience will be Potter newbies.

Anyone who played LEGO Harry Potter 1-4 may find the similarities in 5-7 a little grating. After all, the game once more throws players into the same locations of Kings Cross and Hogwarts castle, featuring many of the same activities. However, the game was always going to be beholden to the lore and events of the Harry Potter series, meaning there was little room to introduce vastly new environments or locations.

But Traveler's Tales has done a decent job of expanding the world, allowing players to explore part of the Dark Forest, along with the Hogwarts observatory and a section of a London street (along with flying over the capital on broomsticks). There are also recreations of the Hogsmeade village, the Room of Requirement and the Ministry of Magic, which will please the Potter devotees.

Among the new features in the game is the ability to walk up walls using Wesley suction cup shoes, and a spell involving water shooting from your wand to extinguish fires. But possibly the most interesting new idea is duelling, involving one-on-one contests at certain key points in the story. Players must mix defensive tactics with using the right sort of attack to strike a blow, as denoted by the color on the opponent's face.

Duelling is a nice change of pace from the usual one button combat against mindless enemies, but the feature gets old rather too quickly. The game's co-op is again drop in/drop out, which is slick and fun. The system features the same system as introduced in recent LEGO video games, involving the players being on the same screen when close together, but the view splits dynamically into two as they move apart.

Over the main campaign, there is the usual abundance of stuff around the edges to do. Hogwarts is a massive central hub, featuring plenty of places for intrepid players to explore and lots of secrets to uncover. Finishing the main story will only complete around half the game, giving great scope to tackle the free play levels again with a different co-op partner to unlock the secrets.

Studs are there for collection throughout the levels, enabling the player to purchase up to 200 different characters, along with cheats such as secret locations. The game's presentation is once more slick and polished, perfectly bringing together the Harry Potter universe with the particular aesthetic of LEGO. A rousing score adds further atmosphere to what is a typically well-presented package.

LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 very much brings more of the same in the series. The game feels like just a continuation of Years 1-4, but that is perfectly understandable considering the circumstances. The fact is that Traveler's Tales is highly skilled at producing slick, colourful and fun adventures that match a cherished entertainment property, in this case JK Rowling's Harry Potter, with the world of LEGO.

Neither the combat, the puzzle solving or the presentation is overly brilliant on its own, but put it all together and you have a winning package that perfectly suits its target audience. As for the future of LEGO video games, what chance of those mini-figures taking on the Lord of the Rings trilogy for their next adventure? Don't bet against it...